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Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World | 
 enlarge | Author: Jessica Snyder Sachs
Publisher: Hill and Wang
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $8.70
You Save: $5.30 (38%)
New (35) Used (12) from $8.08
Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 53796
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0809016427
Dewey Decimal Number: 579
EAN: 9780809016426
ASIN: 0809016427
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
Public sanitation and antibiotic drugs have brought about historic increases in the human life span; they have also unintentionally produced new health crises by disrupting the intimate, age-old balance between humans and the microorganisms that inhabit our bodies and our environment. As a result, antibiotic resistance now ranks among the gravest medical problems of modern times. Good Germs, Bad Germs tells the story of what went terribly wrong in our war on germs. It also offers a hopeful look into a future in which antibiotics will be designed and used more wisely, and beyond that to a day when we may replace antibacterial drugs and cleansers with bacterial ones.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
Living in a bacterial world November 9, 2008
This book should convince you of a new paradigm. We do not live in a world of bacteria that are trying to invade and kill us. We live in a an self-made environment of bacteria that have a stake in our survival, and that protect us from potentially harmful disease. Our use and overuse of antibiotics is changing our individual bacterial ecosystems for the worse, hence the rise of multiply-drug-resistant microorganisms.
Sachs illustrates all this with entertaining clarity, then goes on to describe how current scientists are taking legions of bacteria, putting them through the equivalent of a bacterial Olympics, and deploying the winners to restore a healthful personal ecosystem that can rid us of certain illnesses.
I am a physician with over thirty years in practice. I read and then reviewed and annotated this book, and am writing a newsletter to my patients about it. I think every person, physician or not, will enjoy and learn from this excellent book.
Fascinating November 4, 2008
This is a fascinating book. Sachs manages to be understandable to the general reader, while getting deeply into the science in selected chapters. At times I was a bit confused, but I believe that is primarily due to the gaps in scientific knowledge and some results that are inconsistent at this point; e.g., on how quickly bacteria populations lose genes for resistance when the genes are no longer serving a function. Sachs does say that a promising nasal spray using protective bacteria was abandoned for lack of commercial potential, since any patent could easily be circumvented; but, if competitors tweaked the formula, they would also have to invest the time and money to get FDA approval. I also am wondering why no one is developing a protective biofilm for metal orthopedic implants to prevent infection.
From Nov 08 Plant Physiology: When the plant's leaves were infected with a disease-causing type of bacteria, its roots responded by secreting malic acid - a substance that in turn attracted a different, protective form of bacteria from the surrounding soil. Those helpful bacteria formed a beneficial biofilm on the roots, and they also stimulated the plants' immune response.
-------------------------Summary--------------------------
The "good" bacteria populating humans are important for survival. They protect against the growth of harmful bacteria and virus, which is one reason health care workers tend not to get sick even when they pick up destructive bacteria (and go on to infect patients who may have lost their good bacteria due to antibiotics). Bacteria are also important to digestion; they break down certain foods, and also signal human cells to release enzymes necessary for digestion.
Their relationship to the immune system is complex and not fully understood. What is clear is that exposure to good bacteria is necessary to train the immune system, so that babies born by Cesarian have twice the food allergies that other babies have, because they don't pick up some of the good bacteria from their mothers during birth. There are Peyer's patches, lining the small intestine, which are comparable in structure to lymph nodes, but serve to prevent attacks against good bacteria, so long as they don't end up in the wrong place such as the bloodstream. In fact, there are many good or at least harmless bacteria that can become virulent if in the wrong place, or if they reach a dangerous density: bacteria use a sensing mechanism that can result in changes in their behavior when they reach a large enough density.
Bacteria have a number of mechanisms for picking up genes from other bacteria, so that they develop resistance to antibiotics relatively quickly. Despite trying different approaches, no one has succeeded in developing a method of attack which does not eventually induce resistance. Use of protective bacteria may therefore be our only hope, although new technology may improve the efficacy of vaccines. In the nearer term, minimizing use of antibiotics in humans and animals is the best hope for prolonging antibiotic usefulness, and in fact sometimes older antibiotics, which are only used sparingly, may become effective for a while again. Currently, dangerously resistant bacteria which had once only caused death and serious illness in the hospital setting, are increasingly becoming a problem in the community. Incidentally, Europe is way ahead of the US in taking steps to decrease bacterial resistance.
Easy reading for the microbe curious October 7, 2008
This book is a good read for those interested in a light history of how scientists came to understand some of the more well-known bacteria that affect us. It also provides a glimpse into the lives of those affected by bacterial infections.
If you have a body, read this book August 19, 2008
Good/Bad germs may be the Silent Spring of this time. Not only does it read like a page turner, it explains the human-microbe and microbe-microbe interrelationships in a thoroughly understandable way, by a writer who clearly understands the subjects.
The author fleshes out the facts nicely with sketches illuminating the people and proses of discovery.
This book is critical reading for anyone who has a body.
I bought copies for my friends where a recommendation is not enough.
Very Well-Written Science for the Average Reader August 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read the original 2007 hardcover. It is a gripping account of the relationship between bacteria and humans, from parasitic disease makers to necessary commensals. You will find in very clear and plain English much you need to know about the right balance of cleanliness, allergies and other autoimmune diseases, antibiotic treatment of livestock, resistance swapping of bacteria from the most different species and even cancer cure potentials via bacteria. (I do hope though, that this will not end in a I Am Legend (Widescreen Single-Disc Edition) scenario...)
This book by a freelance science writer is well-structured, starting with a shock introduction, giving a capturing ride on medical bacteria history, presenting the gloomy presence, then the potential solution on the horizon with various future perspectives. As some issues are pending till 2010, be sure to get the latest potential revision of this book.
Just two notes: By reading this book, one may get the impression that syphilis had been brought back to Europe via the "1492 discovery" of the Americas. This disease has been known well before in Europe, including evidence found in Pompeii. Also, if you hear or read about Florence Nightingale, please look up the original, but neglected Mary Seacole...
If you are interested in similar books, with little overlap, Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are is the most close addition. If you are interested in our symbiotic body roomies (commensals), largely restricted to bacteria and in a systematic text book presentation, read the rather dry Microbial Inhabitants of Humans: Their Ecology and Role in Health and Disease. About former parasites, today our energy source and DNA family tree provider, mitochondria, read Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life. A more general biological approach of symbiosis is Liaisons of Life: From Hornworts to Hippos--How the Unassuming Microbe has Driven Evolution. A theoretic re-thinking, including reconstructing taxonomy and theories about gaia, read Symbiotic Planet: A New Look At Evolution. More, but not exclusively, on the yuk side is Parasite Rex : Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures with some disturbing pictures. An entire coffee-table book is Human Wildlife: The Life That Lives on Us, if you are not too squeamish...
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